Vergara Update: Chetty, Chetty Gets Banged, Banged in Teachers College Refute

Over the last decade, teacher evaluation based on value-added models (VAMs) has become central to the public debate over education policy. In this commentary, we critique and deconstruct the arguments proposed by the authors of a highly publicized study that linked teacher value-added models to students’ long-run outcomes, Chetty et al. (2014, forthcoming), in their response to the American Statistical Association statement on VAMs. We draw on recent academic literature to support our counter-arguments along main points of contention: causality of VAM estimates, transparency of VAMs, effect of non-random sorting of students on VAM estimates and sensitivity of VAMs to model specification... TC Record

How nice to see Raj Chetty, who was a witness against the teachers in the California case, taken down. Do you think someone will call for him to lose tenure due to shoddy research?

Chetty is one of those hired hand research thugs from Harvard who "proved" that teacher quality based on VAM can affect a child's lifetime earnings. Of course their (purposely) shoddy work is coming apart at the seams.

As Ravitch wrote in June:

Chetty and Friends Stand by their VAM

June 2, 2014 //

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The American Statistical Association released a brief report on value-added assessment that was devastating to its advocates. ASA said it was not taking sides, but then set out some caveats that left VAM with no credibility. Can a school district judge teacher quality by the test scores of his or her students? ASA wrote this: “VAMs are generally based on standardized test scores, and do not directly measure potential teacher contributions toward other student outcomes.

I imagine hitman lawyer for Campbell Brown, David Boies, will be smart enough not to use Chetty in the NY case. Someone even suggested Chetty, given testimony along the lines of "if only California had better tenure laws as good as NY", be called for our side. But union lawyers have often proved to be dumber than dirt, so don't expect a rigorous defense of tenure. In fact, look for them to plead that they will figure out ways to help get rid of teachers, continuing a long tradition, as Eterno points out over at ICE, where our own union has helped weaken the tenure laws (LETTER TO PROTECT TENURE FROM PEOPLE WHO WEAKENED IT).
Like, does anyone think it is only 3 years when half the people get extended, sometimes for more than one year (I recently met a guy who was in his 7th year as a teacher and only got it by getting away from the witch who was his principal.

Read the report below the break.

I Defend Tenure in the Indypendent

Thanks to John Tarleton for a great editing job. Making me look literate ain't easy.

Teacher Bashing Knows No Summer Vacation

By Norm Scott

July 16, 2014

Issue # 198

 

In a closely watched case, a California judge ruled on June 10 that the state’s teacher tenure laws infringed on the civil rights of students in schools in poor communities to a proper education guaranteed under the state constitution.

Pointing to evidence that one to three percent of teachers in California’s public schools are grossly ineffective, Judge Rolf Treu wrote in his 16-page decision that teacher tenure laws “impose a real and appreciable impact on students’ fundamental right to equality of education and that they impose a disproportionate burden on poor and minority students.”

The astroturf parent group that pursued the lawsuit was funded by Silicon Valley millionaire David Welch. While Treu left California tenure laws in place until state appeals courts review his ruling, similar anti-tenure lawsuits have since been filed in several states, including here in New York. 

MORE at
https://indypendent.org/2014/07/16/teacher-bashing-knows-no-summer-vacation

Defense of Tenure - It Ain't Only About the Teachers

At the MORE UFT history event, a teacher who I first met about 6 weeks ago and is new to MORE asked why we don't see campaigns defending teachers and tenure. The UFT spends millions on ads but tenure is not mentioned. Interesting that at the AFT on Monday just before the convention ended, AFT press people came over and asked some of us to attend a press conference upstairs on this very issue.

The event was being run by new AFT superstar Mary

Catherine Ricker (on the right) and included teachers who defended their children and  parents who work with teachers. Parent Helen Gym from Philadelphia gave one of the most passionate defenses of tenure I've seen (I have the video to process).

What was interesting was that the AFT was filming the event to use it for advocacy - meaning that maybe some commercials will be coming. We'll see. In the meantime, while the union twiddles teachers on the front line like Arthur Goldstein, who could not attend the AFT convention because he won't sign the Unity Caucus loyalty oath, took up the issue and wrote a great defense of tenure in the July 16 Daily News.

RBE points to another pro-tenure piece in Salon by Gabriel Arana. http://www.salon.com/2014/07/1...

Parents, education advocates plan to defend teacher tenure against lawsuit filed by parents' reform group

Good for lawyer Arthur Schwartz, another apparently stabbed in the back by Moaning Mona Davids, who at this point has a rare no comment. Arthur has done many good legal deeds for Moaning Mona  -- and many others. When she filed the suit I knew Arthur wasn't involved but good to see him take a stand.

What I would like to see is a bill sent to  Moaning Mona and Sorryful Sam for wasting the time of the court system for useless self-serving law suits.

And how about Moaning Mona's willingness to expose her kids so openly in photos while responsible parents shield their kids? How about those people who went after Portelos for naming her kids (by their first name only). Talk about using your kids for personal interests.

Enid Alvarez/New York Daily News The president of the New York City Parents Union, Mona Davids (pictured with her two kids, Mymoena and Eric) will be facing about 50 parents and education advocates who oppose her organization's lawsuit against teacher tenure.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/parents-education-advocates-defend-teacher-tenure-article-1.1864724#ixzz37UXtG3Tw

SI Supt to Kathleen Grimm: Sam (Pirozzolo) is a Fool

.... and this was before Pirozzolo hooked up with Moaning Mona Davids in their rediculous copycat Vergara tenure law suit.

A Jan. 2013 email between District 31 (Staten Island) Supt. and Deputy Chancellor Kathleen Grimm, over Francesco Portelos' appearance at a Dist. 31 CEC meeting shows just how high up concerns over his actions had reached and explains the willingness of Tweed to spend upwards of half a million bucks to get rid of him. A joyous sidelight of the email is the Supt. referring to CEC member Pirozzolo as a "fool."

How nice to see Grimm, the Grim Reaper of Closing Schools, continuing to enjoy her status after being kept on by Farina as Deputy Chancellor -- sort of like promoting Nazi prison guards after the war.

Moaning Mona Vergara Copycat Suit Is Also An Attack on Parents and Students Facing Bully Principals

Parent activists are rightfully outraged at Mona Davids' claims that  "the NYCPU, is the leading independent voice of New York City public school students and their parents."

In fact the very idea of an attack on tenure is an attack on parents and students as much, if not more, than on teachers.

Bully, abusive principals, of which there are many, not only abuse teachers but parents and students too. It is often the teachers protected by tenure who build alliances with parents in their schools who are savaged by these principals.

These Principals hunger for the attack on tenure to be successful so they can shut down all voices of dissent in the schools. Think of people like the teachers who could stand up against the assault on PS 15 by Bloomberg and the charter lobby, an assault Mona Davids in one of her earliest incarnations, gleefully joined in. Or James Eterno's brave defense of the doomed Jamaica HS. Or teachers like Francesco Portelos whose tenure protected him against 2 years of attack, until he ultimately prevailed after the DOE spent almost half a million dollars trying to terminate him and failed. Or the teacher in Queens under assault by a psychotic principal who was causing harm to students through financial and other irregularities who worked with parents to organize the resistance until the principal resigned. That teacher would have been gone in an instant if suits like these prevail.

Mona Davids' claims to be defending students and parents are blatant lies and distortions and should be exposed as such.

And let us not forget that Mona Davids eagerly participated (and was of invaluable assistance) in the making of the film, The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman, one of the strongest defenses of tenure - going way beyond anything the UFT has done.

Just another flip-flop on her part in the pursuit of self-interest.

 See: Dissecting Moaning Mona Davids

Jesse Rothstein on Vergara Decision - Taking On Teacher Tenure Backfires

Go ahead, get rid of tenure -- make my day. Oh, this move will backfire big over time because there will be no one left to blame. Note how the poor performing south with no tenure is ignored. And just wait until the job market gets better. Let them go hunting for people who can fog a mirror. Yes, Virginia, even good teachers take the job for its security. Take that away and happy hunting.

It is important to dismiss ineffective teachers, but also to attract and retain effective teachers.
Judge Treu’s opinion in the case... ignores these trade-offs. ....eliminating tenure will do little to address the real barriers to effective teaching in impoverished schools, and may even make them worse....
One of the few things that helps to recruit good people into teaching is job security... Jesse Rothstein

Why are our union leaders unable to manage cogent responses like Rothstein? When they go up against a deformer they look like they have  marbles in their mouths. You know why? Because they do not have a fundamental belief in the possibilities of real reform. Their belief system is very rooted in ed deform -- getting rid of the bad teacher so the union won't be embarrassed. They're afraid to say what Jesse Rothstein says here - if you think going to the trouble and expense of removing a bad teacher is worth it, wait until you see the replacement - who may be worse at the very least because they will be new teachers - at least the one you got rid of had some experience and probably some skills. Thus Rothstein says,

Thomas J. Kane, a professor of education at Harvard and an expert witness for the Vergara plaintiffs, co-wrote a paper in 2006 on the “coming teacher shortage” and a looming need to “dig further down in the pool of those willing to consider” teaching. Significant layoffs during the last recession, which refilled the pool of job seekers, temporarily alleviated the problem. But those will be absorbed quickly as education budgets recover.

The challenge, then, is to increase the number of high-quality applicants. One of the few things that helps to recruit good people into teaching is job security. That is not to say teachers should never be dismissed — but when and how to do that requires careful balancing.

In the 1930s the NYCDOE created a 2nd class non-tenured teacher position that became known as a regular sub license. I believe they became a significant percentage of the teaching staff. I worked under that for my first 3 years - and got 2 of them for what was known as "gerema credit" -- I needed only one more year when I became a regularly appointed teacher to become tenured. In those years they were dragging people off the street to teach. Thousands of us were given the choice - Vietnam or teach in an at-risk school. Some who chose the latter said at times they would have preferred Vietnam.

As our pal in Buffalo points out ----Unions Muster A Feckless Response to Vergara Ruling -

Here is Rothstein's full piece in NY Times.

Taking On Teacher Tenure Backfires

California Ruling on Teacher Tenure Is Not Whole Picture

John Thompson at The Chalkface Expores the Subtleties of the Tenure Battle

Something tells me...that getting rid of our due process rights won’t be a promising tactic for recruiting and retaining new teacher talent..... Without seniority, this school closure mania gives districts a Get Out of Jail Free Card – they can commit age discrimination at will.....Obamacare might now be the best education reform of his administration. .. John Thompson

Some more great points from John Thompson:

If reformers spent more time in schools, I bet they would recognize the pattern that has been obvious throughout my career. In many or most classrooms with an incompetent teacher in my inner city school, the current bad teacher replaced the previous bad teacher, who replaced a previous bad teacher. Why? Qualified teachers won’t volunteer for those jobs. And, that is why so many principals grant tenure to teachers who aren’t capable of teaching in tough classes. If they fire that teacher, what is the chance of finding a better applicant next year?

An important point here that John might emphasize: There are excellent teachers who just aren't as capable of teaching in tough classes as they might be in classes of eager, on-grade level learner. In fact many teachers who are "capable" use survival rather than the best pedagogical techniques. I know I had to use different tactics with the tougher classes -- I had to work very hard on building community before the academics. Nothing like a fight breaking out to ruin a lesson. Other than one particular class out of the 17 self-contained classes I taught, I rarely had fights due to this effort. And even in that class I managed to get that under control within a few months. But did academics suffer? Hell yes. Those trials I held to adjudicate the tensions between some of the kids took time.

Reformers, including those who might have fought against civil service laws in the age of Progressivism, say that tenure was designed to protect teachers against political pressure. What do they think we’re facing today? Don’t they understand the political pressure we are under to practice educational malpractice in an age of test and punish, and rushing through a skin-deep test prep guide? Even with due process, it’s not easy to advocate for high-quality instructional practices... 

My friend - an ed notes reader who will recognize his words -- used to refer to teachers as "New York's Meekest." I would claim that with the Bloomberg Leadership Academy "gotcha" squad of principals, even teachers with tenure were fearful of being sent to the rubber room gulag for minor transgressions.

Here is a superb point.

In my experience, when bad teachers aren’t removed, the collective bargaining agreement usually has little to do with the outcome. In my experience, health issues and disability law are a much, much bigger factor than tenure. Perhaps the ineffective teacher tries to hold on for too long because he can’t lose his health insurance, and the administrator is loath to put him on the streets without medical benefits. As my former union local president used to say, nothing would help us improve teacher quality as much as universal health insurance. Had reformers been willing to address the real problems in schools, and not scapegoat teachers, Obamacare might now be the best education reform of his administration

John points to why many experienced teachers run from tough schools if they can.

Without seniority, this school closure mania gives districts a Get Out of Jail Free Card – they can commit age discrimination at will.
If conservative or liberal reformers doubt that that is a key reason why the modal years of experience of teachers has dropped to one year, they might want to stroll through a few turnaround or transformation schools. Plenty of great veteran teachers would love to cap their careers by helping to turn a school around. We have 1.6 million teachers approaching retirement, and our knowledge could be invaluable. How many are welcomed in SIG schools with their focus on test scores? Where are the teachers with institutional memories and where are they not? The next time a reformer is taken out on a SIG dog and pony show, they might want to count the number of twenty-somethings in the building and ask why.

Read John's entire piece, Why Tenure is Essential
at http://atthechalkface.com/2014/06/13/why-tenure-is-essential/

Why MORE? Vergara Tenure Decision, Eva Charter Expansion, UFT/AFT Tepid Responses

It will take an army to defeat ed deform. The UFT actually has a potential army through its large (but shrinking, and due to shrink more) membership (108,000 contract vote ballots were sent out to working UFT members) but wants to keep it defanged because an army with teeth may turn on the leadership.

There is much hang-wringing over the California tenure decision, though it may well be overturned. People are bitching, weeping, complaining, whining, mourning... not only over the decision, but the ineffective manner the teacher unions have been responding to ed deform over the past 15 years. See comments on Ravitch blog in response to Randi's "I'm shocked, just shocked" response to Arne Duncan cheers for Vergara decision:  Randi Blasts Duncan for Betraying Teachers in Vergara Case. 

I left my 2 cents. Some of the comments criticizing Randi are just plain naive- along the lines of "why don't teachers wake up?" Like they don't get that even a weak union has a certain organizational structure - with its own internal political machine that has the ability to control the communication network that feed whatever info teachers get. If your union machine (see Unity Caucus) pounds you with one message, what does it take to create an alternative? As one who has tried at various times over the past 44 years, let me tell you: a hell of a lot of effort - all of which depends on the use of volunteer labor.

And blogging or other individual activities on the part of even the most aware teachers, is not organizing, which involves face to face.

Individual bloggers and activists will never have the impact needed to counter attack against this onslaught. I don't pretend for a minute that ed notes has much of an impact, other than providing some info for people. My goal is to use ed notes as tool to spur activism within the UFT, which is the only real body where an impact can be made. Forget influencing the general public, which all too many bloggers consider their main goal. If you can't convince your fellow UFT members, forget about the public. Get that 70,000 army going and THEN go for the public. (See one Chicago Teachers Union.)

But you can't do this as an individual blogger. Only by building an organization as a true alternative to Unity Caucus that can match the numbers Unity has will we see change.

Thus, the attempt to build a group like MORE that can attract people who will function as organizers. As one teacher said at a recent MORE happy hour, "I can no longer sit by and watch our profession be destroyed." I do not take that to mean that she will take up blogging and think she is no longer sitting by. What she means is that she will consider running for chapter leader and organizing in her school and in her local school community by reaching out to other schools and joining the MORE network. For only by building a political machine with deep roots into the schools to challenge the Unity machine will we see changes.

I'll delve further into what this means in future blogs.

=====
There are millions of dollars arrayed against teachers. Blogs, comments on blogs, making the case for teachers and tenure by preaching to the choir will not turn the tide. The unions spout words of militancy on a regular basis but keep compromising with the deformers.

The AFT supports the deform gov of Connecticut over real reformer Jonathan Pelto. And we just heard that the Louisiana Education Association praised Gov Bobby Jindal for tweaking the state eval law -- Has hell frozen over? Teachers union applauds Jindal (because it was chaotic).

I watched how passionless and ineffective the head of the California AFT leader was on TV when facing one of the people behind the lawsuit who brought up none of the points made by people like Diane Ravitch.

Here her on Brian Lehrer on WNYC: http://www.wnyc.org/story/overturning-teacher-tenure/

And read her blog:

Not only did none of them have a “grossly ineffective” teacher, but some of the plaintiffs attended schools where there are no tenured teachers. Two of the plaintiffs attend charter schools, where there is no tenure or seniority, and as you will read below, “Beatriz and Elizabeth Vergara both attend a “Pilot School” in LAUSD that is free to let teachers go at the end of the school year for any reason, including ineffectiveness. 

The Vergara Trial Teachers Were Not “Grossly Ineffective”

Also:
David B. Cohen: A Thoughtful Analysis of Vergara Decision

Vergara Tenure Commentary: High Crime Areas Due to Ineffective Police?

Police and firemen could be next. Let's say the same parents in the Vergara case claimed that crime was higher in their neighborhoods BECAUSE the police in their communities were all off probation. We could avoid blaming centuries of racism, discrimination, poverty exploitation of immigrants etc... blame crime on the police.
And their unions / civil service job protections.... Their goal is to make all civil servants at will employees. We need to wake up..... A NYC Principal

Residents of high crime areas often claim that they get the most inexperienced police who are low in seniority. I don't know how true that is but I bet there are seniority perks. Seniority placement is also used in the fire department, I believe. The reality is that the hedge hogs would never touch the police and fire people. Teachers are the easy target -

Our principal pal shows how tenure is not a job for life:

I myself have fired teachers for cause and won each and every time.  Two of these folks were veterans( over 30 years) who had done some great work but one was found to have verbally abused children on a regular basis and the other could no longer handle a large class when her smaller pull out program was eliminated due to a budget cut.

There's commentary all over the place -- many popped up on my blog roll. Raging Horse did part 2: Vergara Part Two : How the 1% Have Learned to Use the Noblest Causes for the Most Venal Ends

NYC Educator blog calls for all of us to get reparations for our own bad teachers: Will the Vergara Case Make Us Rich? By Special Guest Blogger Rolf M. Reformeo. I could get a few bucks myself. Most of my teachers are very good -- though when my East NY neighborhood changed drastically in a very short time they must have turned bad when kids began to do poorly.)

Our pal Brian Jones, running for Lt. Gov on the Green Party line has an op ed on the case at the NY Times blog.

If you have a moment, please read and share my commentary in the New York Times "Room for Debate" blog about the teacher tenure ruling in California:

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/06/11/does-tenure-protect-bad-teachers-or-good-schools/protections-of-teacher-tenure-do-not-hurt-students

Brian Jones is also part of the NY Times debate which includes Diane Ravitch and 2 deformers -  Debating the Vergara Decision in the New York Times.

And by the way --- tenure protections were put in place for the purpose of civil rights issues -- check the current ATR pool and count how many teachers of color are in that pool.
Do you think there are no homophobe principals around?

Diane also talks about that issue:

In response to the debate in the New York Times “Room for Debate” about the Vergara decision, teacher H.A. Hurley commented on the historical perspective I offered, showing that tenure was part of women teachers’ struggle against the pervasive gender discrimination of superintendents and school boards. 

Teacher: Tell the Stories About Tenure and Gender Discrimination.